Since Forbes hired me in 1995 to write a legal column, I’ve taken advantage of the great freedom the magazine grants its staff, to pursue stories about everything from books to billionaires. I’ve chased South Africa’s first black billionaire through a Cape Town shopping mall while admirers flocked around him, climbed inside the hidden chamber in the home of an antiquarian arms and armor dealer atop San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill, and sipped Chateau Latour with one of Picasso’s grandsons in the Venice art museum of French tycoon François Pinault. I’ve edited the magazine’s Lifestyle section and opinion pieces by the likes of John Bogle and Gordon Bethune. As deputy leadership editor, these days I mostly write about careers and corporate social responsibility. I got my job at Forbes through a brilliant libertarian economist, Susan Lee, whom I used to put on television at MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Before that I covered law and lawyers for journalistic stickler, harsh taskmaster and the best teacher a young reporter could have had, Steven Brill.

How To Write A Cover Letter

When a friend of mine – I’ll call her Carol – asked me to help with a job cover letter last weekend, I said sure, piece of cake. I write and edit for a living. How difficult could it be to fix a page of my friend’s prose?

Painfully difficult, it turns out. I spent hours sweating over Carol’s letter, and even then I didn’t feel I had cracked it. The first line stumped me, and still does. “I am very pleased to submit my application,” she began. That seemed awfully stiff, and besides, the company she was addressing would be lucky to hire her. But my alternative was too informal, and possibly overconfident: “I would be thrilled to become . . .”

For help, I combed through the web and turned to three of my job coach sources. I found lots of horribly written letters (“As a highly skilled sales manager with proven experience . . .”) and some difference of opinion. My conclusion: Cover letters make a difference, even short ones. Don’t ever send a boilerplate “Enclosed please find résumé” note. Do tell a story and even crack a joke if you can. Always mention mutual contacts, and make sure you proofread carefully. Even though today’s cover letter is always an e-mail with a résumé attached, as opposed to a hard copy sent by snail mail, do err on the side of a more formal prose style, avoiding common e-mail abbreviations like “u” instead of “you.”

That said, New York City job coach Roy Cohen, author of The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide, and Marcie Schorr Hirsch, of Hirsch/Hills Consulting, in Newton Centre, Mass., both favor short letters of less than a page. The two agree that the larger the company, the less important the letter. “A brilliant letter that’s a response to a job posting may not make a difference,” Cohen says. “In an overburdened workplace, it’s less likely that that letter will get a lot of attention.”

Hirsch and Cohen both like letters that start by spelling out what job you’re trying to get, including the name of the company, followed by a summary of your career, a list of your relevant accomplishments and then a last line that requests a meeting and says when you plan to get in touch. “Wall Street has a short attention span,” says Cohen. “Simple is the way to go.”

Still, it’s tough to write a great opening line, even in a short letter. The magic bullet: Naming someone you know in common: “Carol McGillicutty recommended I get in touch about the sales manager job at Adams & Co.”

But what do you say if you can’t say that?

In search of great prose ideas, I tried the writing guru William Zinsser, former master at Yale’s Branford College and author of the much-read book On Writing Well. Zinsser’s first response: “I think the business world is so uptight and so competitive, they might not want any of the kind of humanity I’m proposing.” Zinsser doesn’t like my “thrilled” opening line at all. “It’s kind of a false ingratiation,” he points out. “I think storytelling is good,” he suggests. “If you have some anecdote—’An uncle of mine once said,’” he suggests. Or, “One reason I want to work for you is I always remember something my father told me.”

My conclusion: Zinsser is right that storytelling is a great tactic in a cover letter. But it’s also a tall order for most of us.

Instead, I’d recommend either the short, succinct approach proposed by Hirsch and Cohen or the four-paragraph format suggested by Kate Wendleton, founder and president of the Five O’Clock Club, a 32-year-old national career coaching organization based in New York:

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I only have one comment. As a hiring professional, I receive hundreds of resumes a week. Hiring is a small part of what I do, and therefore, time is a factor for me. I do, however, read all of my resumes. I don’t therefore, have time to respond to unqualified resumes. And I clearly state this in all posted ads (as well as “No phone calls please.”) So suggesting calling me in a few days to follow up is not going to work for me, and I don’t think that I am alone on this. A follow up email is appropriate, but not a follow up phone call. Everyone is busy and it is much easier (and less intrusive to someone’s busy day) to do an email search from a follow up email than from a phone call. And try multiplying that by hundreds of resumes…. especially when hiring may not be all that someone is responsible for….Email followup is much better.

I came back just to add something and come to find out I’m glad I did.

This person who posted, “I am a Hiring Professional” is the most Superficial position to give someone/anyone. WHY?

Simple, because all they can do is connect the dots.

Ex. In today’s environment, they have more adjectives and more 30 letter words to describe the lucrative position on how to flip a Hamburger :D

However, they still don’t know how to say DA-TA…Latin Plural of Datum…the Non-Countable noun, George gave Jamie the DA-TA…not DAT-A…ROFL.

anyway…That said…

Come to find out, you are typically dealing with an assistant in the front office playing Multiple Choice with Applicants.

Just because I say Domain, doesn’t mean they understand Active Directory. I had to go back and redo my resume and add some adjectives for things I took for granted and thought would be read and easily understood by the Tech and not some air conditioned multiple choice, match the line to the dot moron in the admin office. Grrr

So, Piece of advice, learn how to “LOOK” for a Job aside from knowing how to do your job, because your superior has passed off that responsibility to Angel the 7.00 an hour receptionist.

Go to your Workforce/Worksource center and you can train for free just how to explain in a Masters Degree dialect on how to flip a Hamburger.

Hiring Professional Continued: ROFL Okay here is a perfect example of a “Hiring Professional’s” type of question.

In order to open his new office the following week, Mr. Watkins hired a painter, a carpet layer, an electrician, and a carpenter.

The painter is available only on Tuesday morning, Wednesday afternoon, and all day Friday. The carpet layer is available only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. The electrician is available only on Tuesday morning and Friday afternoon. The carpenter is available only on Monday morning, Tuesday all day, and Wednesday afternoon.

Unless otherwise stated, each worker must work alone and is able to complete their own job in a half day. Good Luck with that one :D

Oh Yeah, and the Furniture is being delivered on Thursday. :D

2. If the painter needs the whole day on Friday to complete his job…Stop.

OKAY :D

If this “Hiring Professional” :D ever built a house before they would know the Electrician Can’t finish until the Carpenter finishes. The Carpenter “Frames” the house. The Carpet layer can’t lay carpet until the Carpenter, the Electrician and the Painter finishes. However, that will never happen, because the Painter will never finish, why? because THERE IS NO DRYWALLER!!! :D

LEARN HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE FIRST THEN POST THIS RHETORICAL QUESTION!! Hahahahaaaahahahahaaahah…ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahahahahahahaaahaha

Oh yeah, and this type of question is to teach you how to stack freight in a Truck…:D

I’ve got one for you. The topic sentence of your coverletter is this “I am writing to express my interest in the (some job title) position with XYZ Company as advertised on Monster’s website” or “Monster.com’s website” or Monster.com. (Notice the period!) There are some positions which are listed company websites and others that aren’t. We would misdirect them by saying that we saw the opening on the company’s site even though it was on Monster or some other.

Everybody wants to have good job but time to be careful with their job requirements they become careless about writing in proper way. There are several ways of plan cover letter to get a proper job or starting business in right way. I think, internet is the big source to make you successful.

“Though I’d delete the “I’ve attached my résumé for your review” phrase; the recipient will see the attachment and doesn’t need to be told” — I disagree, nobody ever likes to open attachments so I would include a reason to do so, i.e. would keep the phrase that indicates what needs to be done with the attachment.